whoa...the week went by FAST

The first day of school is over and I taught not one thing. Today is Tuesday May 6, 2008 and probably a quarter of the students actually attended school. Apparently this is quite common for the week after break and we shouldn’t expect usual attendance until the start of next week. So today we (the other volunteers, Martina, Klara and I) visited with the kids, helped tidy the classrooms (dusted away spider webs, and the spiders along with them, swept the dust on the floor from one pile to another, that sort of thing) and tried to ignore the fact that this lack of attendance would never happen back home. Even though we were not able to begin teaching, it was great to see the kids faces and they seemed just as happy to see us.
I noticed that many of the blackboards in the classrooms were falling down, bent and pretty much worthless. I had noticed this before but did not know if there was much that could be done. Most of the boards are literally a large piece of plywood that has been painted black. This only lasts so long and as you can imagine, the chalk never gets completely wiped off. I asked Naomi what is costs to have actual blackboards installed in each classroom and she went to ask someone. She returned to ask if she could take me down the road to a lumber yard to see for myself. Since it was clear that there would be no actual teaching done today, Martina, Klara and I went with Naomi to the town of Ahwiaa (about ten minutes away). Of course the school needs more text books and reading books and pencils but it also needs appropriate blackboards, ones that will last. The school itself needs so much work and I believe chalkboards are where to start.
I soon realized that true blackboards are hard to find in Ghana but we could buy new boards for 8 cedi each and again paint the boards black. Another idea is to figure out the cost of cement and build blackboards by smoothing a new layer of cement to the walls of the classrooms and to then paint that black. I did not understand how this would work so Naomi took us to another school nearby that used cement for their chalkboards. After seeing the other school I think this is the best option. I should get an estimate on costs soon and depending on that cost, the other two volunteers and I may just decide to pay for them. I would love to see some improvement in the school building before I leave.
This past weekend was fun. I spent most of the day on Friday with a friend I met in Mole National Park. She is a grad student from Canada doing research for her nursing program. Because she has to work in her thesis while here in Ghana, Heather has a laptop with her and this is wonderful because we discovered free internet at a luxurious hotel in Kumasi. The Golden Tulip hotel is stunning and has a beautiful pool and restaurant and is entirely too expensive to stay at, however they coffee is affordable and REAL! We sat at the restaurant at the hotel for hours drinking coffee, treating ourselves to lunch and using the free (fast) internet. I was able to upload my pictures onto my cd but need to wait until this weekend to use her computer once again to actually get the pictures online for you to see. I am really keeping my fingers crossed this time because I cannot wait to show you all what I have been doing the past 10 weeks. After we left the hotel we went back to her hotel. Heather (and her friend Leann who was traveling for the weekend) are staying in a hotel for the full three months they are living in Ghana because they were unable to find a host stay. While this is a somewhat expensive choice, I was invited to stay over Friday night and I have never slept so well (while in Africa). Not only did they have air conditioner but it was very quiet!
Then on Sunday I joined Emily and Monica (two other volunteer friends) at another nearby hotel to spend the day at the pool. Not long after we arrived a woman came over to introduce herself after hearing us speaking English. Turns out she is with a group of adults in the medical field hoping to open a training center specializing in facial deformities in children. We asked her where she was from and she said that seven out of the ten were from non other then the Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Washington. This was all too fortunate and unbelievable. I asked if I could meet the rest of her group deciding I absolutely must take this opportunity to practice my networking skills and decide if I do in fact take after my mother. She invited me to join them and soon I found myself seated with her group explaining what I was doing in Ghana, where I went to high school, college and my future plans (to get into the health care field myself) in addition to current Seattle weather and any recent news in the democratic election. Before leaving I managed to get three business cards and invitations to get in touch with them. I was thrilled and felt quite accomplished. Don’t worry, I have already sent an email to each saying how great it was to have met them. And to finish off the weekend Martina and Klara returned to our project after not seeing much of each other over the break and the three of us ate a dinner of boiled yams and vegetable stew and watched “Dream Girls” on the dvd player. I will write more this week before posting this blog.
Hello again...it is Friday May 9th today and I am back at the Golden Tulip luxury hotel with two friends from Canada taking advantage of the free internet. I am happy to say that this week went by very quickly. So on Wednesday Martina, Klara and I went with Naomi to purchase the cement and then order the sand. While I am so happy to offer to pay for all of these materials, I have to admit I did not think the construction for the blackboards would even begin to take place until July or something. Everything in Ghana takes three times as long as it would anywhere else so to my surprise I was shelling out $240. Again, I am quite happy to do this but my casual comment about the price of blackboards now has me seriously watching the amount of money I have in my account for the next 3 months. The sand did not arrive until yesterday afternoon therefore the actual building of the blackboards did not begin until this morning. Yesterday I came to school wearing shorts, a t-shirt and my running shoes. The kids know what that means. I was greeted with huge smiles and "Madame...P.E.??!!" I smiled back, "yes kids...c'mon." They followed me out to the "field" and we began a boys verses girls game of football. With the attendance being so slow, we were actually able to play a real game for a while. The girls tired easily though to my disappointment. I played with the boys a while longer then began skipping rope with the girls. My forgot to put sunblock on however and my shoulders are quite red.
Thursday was beautiful and very hot but that night we had one of the biggest storms we have ever had. There was torrential rains, wind, lightening and thunder complete with a leaking roof. In addition to all of that I had about 12 kids in my room. Klara had gotten braids in her hair about 3 weeks ago and it takes just as long to take them out by hand (about 7 hours). She was in my room with a few of the girls taking out her braids while watching some movies and before I knew it all the other kids were in my room. When the storm started not one of them wanted to go outside, understandably so. By nine, when the storm finally let up, I had ten children sleeping on my floor. I felt bad waking them up but there was no way they could all stay in my room for the night.
I have to get going though, Heather, Leann (friends from Canada) and I are going to attempt to make our own fufu for dinner tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great week and Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!
-Erin